2. 4 killed, 15 hurt in roadside bombing

MANILA

- Two government soldiers and two suspected communist rebels were killed while 15 other soldiers were wounded in a roadside bombing and firefight in Davao City on Thursday, February 16.

Major Ezra Balagtey, spokesman of the military's Joint Task Force Haribon, said pursuit operations were underway against the remnants of the New People's Army band that figured in the clash.

Balagtey said troops from the Army's 3rd Infantry Battalion were on a convoy when the rebels detonated a roadside bomb around 4 p.m. near the boundary of Barangays Lacson and Lamanan, leading to the firefight.

He said the troops were going after a group of rebels behind the burning of a pineapple harvester owned by Del Monte Corporation in Barangay Tawantawan, Calinan District in Davao Thursday noon.

The slain soldiers were both enlisted personnel. Among those hurt are 14 enlisted men and an officer with a rank of second lieutenant. He declined to name the slain soldiers, pending notification of their families.

Troops recovered from the scene of encounter the bodies of two suspected rebels, along with a Garand rifle and a caliber 45 pistol, two improvised bombs and land mine par apher nal i a.

Around 5 a.m. Thursday, suspected NPA rebels also attacked an Army detachment in Sitio Binaton, Barangay Malabog in Paquibato District, Davao City.

Balagtey said subsequent firefight led to the killing of one of the rebels.